The Metanational era 
is underway.
 
A powerful new book 
shows why - and how - managers will join it.

In their new book From Global to Metanational: How Companies Win in the Knowledge Economy, released on Nov. 13 by Harvard Business School Press, international business and strategy experts Yves Doz, José Santos, and Peter Williamson introduce a radically new kind of company - the metanational. This new breed identifies emerging knowledge from all over the world, leverages it into innovations, and turns innovations into value ahead of the competition. Through examples drawn from years of research into firms ranging from multinationals to start-ups, Doz, Santos and Williamson show how companies can grasp the opportunity - and challenge - of becoming a metanational competitor.

 


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And why the name “metanational”? Aren’t global, multinational, multifocal, transnational, and so on sufficient? Not really. We need a new name when we are trying to articulate a new model, a new paradigm. For a metanational, globalization is not about taking home-country know-how to new markets, projecting around the globe a formula it has developed in a single “center of excellence”. It is about fishing for knowledge in a global pool, harvesting that knowledge for innovation, and capturing the value for its stakeholders.

Executive Summary:

Chapter 1, "The Metanational Advantage," shows why emergent metanational corporations have a growing edge on traditional multinationals. The good news is that multinationals have a powerful head start in becoming successful metanationals - if they deploy and extend their existing capabilities and resources. At the same time, new players, be they startups or divisions of existing corporations, can also achieve global stature.

Chapter 2, "Breaking Free of Geography," identifies a growing opportunity to innovate by tapping pockets of technology and market intelligence scattered around the world. To grasp this opportunity, however, companies need to break free of their geographic and historical legacies.

In Chapter 3, "The Metanational Pioneers: Benefits of Being Born in the Wrong Place," it turns out that the companies defining the metanational path had no choice but to look afar for technologies, capabilities, and market intelligence. Their experiences draw a blueprint for the skills and structures that tomorrow's winners will need.

Chapter 4, "Shoehorning Won't Work," leads managers away from trying to coax metanational innovation out of an organization that wasn't designed for the task.

Chapter 5, "The Tyranny of Distance," cuts a path around the trap of believing that information and communications technology alone can eliminate the problems of mobilizing dispersed knowledge.

The next three chapters show managers how to augment their existing organizations or build new ones to avoid costly errors along the metanational path:

Chapter 6, "Learning From the World", presents structures and processes that enable a company to prospect for knowledge that can differentiate it from competitors.

Chapter 7, "Mobilizing Dispersed Knowledge", tells how to innovate by integrating -- or "melding" -- pieces of knowledge originating in multiple locations around the world.

Chapter 8, "Harvesting the Value of a Metanational Innovation", presents a working model of how to relay discoveries into the hands of a day-to-day operating network.

And Chapter 9, "From Global to Metanational", provides a practical blueprint for senior managers who are ready to join the metanational trend.
Download the first chapter About the authors How to order the book